I have some concerns about the way that aptosid(or KDE) is using to safely remove my usb Hard Drive.

The fact is that if I use Dolphin or the KDE widget to "Safely remove" my external usb hard drive, what I observe is only a unmount process, the disk remains spinning and I heard a strange "click" noise when I unplug the usb connector.

I noticed that other users of KDE apparently had the same problem. See these 2 links:

Do you get any errors when you plug the device back in? If the device wasnNo, I don't get any error when I plug the device again.

My main concern is about possible hardware damage. I need to be sure that the procedure of only unmount is sufficient.

What I observe in other machines are different procedures when I safely remove the disk. In Fedora(gnome) and Windows when I ask to "safely Remove" the Disk gentle spins off(shutdown).
In aptosid(KDE4) when I ask Dolphin to safely remove the partition is only unmounted, the disk remains spinning.
When I disconnect the usb, the disk suddenly spins off and do a "strange" click noise.

This noise keeps me a little worried, so I think that procedure of safely remove drive could be wrong or that I need to configure something else to get this issue resolved.

I have seen this issue for a long time for linux umount. umount does keep the data safe, but it works differently from the Windows 'remove hardware'. The windows 'remove hardware' shuts off power to the usb drive (you can see the light on the usb drive turn off). I do not know how to do this with software on a linux distribution.

I have seen this issue for a long time for linux umount. umount does keep the data safe, but it works differently from the Windows 'remove hardware'. The windows 'remove hardware' shuts off power to the usb drive (you can see the light on the usb drive turn off). I do not know how to do this with software on a linux distribution.

There should be a "spin down" command to spin it down in preparation for power off after unmounting

where "n" is a multiple of 5 seconds. You can can tweak /etc/hdparm.conf for internal hard drives, but plugged USB drives of course have a random /dev/sdx ID, so it would have to be manual each time.

Crust

Post subject:Posted: 02.02.2011, 05:17

Joined: 2010-09-12
Posts: 30

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towo,

The power goes out if it is powered by only one usb port. For example, usb memory sticks will be shut off (while in linux, the power stays on). Hard drives with external power supply or using two usb ports for power do not shut off. AFAIK

leoshare

Post subject:Posted: 03.02.2011, 00:32

Joined: 2010-11-02
Posts: 10
Location: Brazil
Status: Offline

I have seen that some people here already observed the behavior that I described in windows. But as I also wrote, some Linux(like Fedora using gnome) do the usb power down procedure.

Anyone know if it's possible to configure KDE/aptosid to do the same procedure, or if it is a bug of some software that need to be reported(maybe to the upstream) ?

Sorry to insist, but I need to know what are necessary to keep the disk integrity, I think that a really safely remove procedure are needed.

thanks for the answers.
Leonardo

slam

Post subject:Posted: 03.02.2011, 07:40

Team Member

Joined: 1970-01-01
Posts: 607
Location: w3
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Your USB hardware is safe to be removed after "Safely Remove" - in all operating systems. It is build for that, no matter if it was actually powered down before or not.
Greetings,
Chris

Because MS-Windows was mentioned to shut off the USB power in case of 'safely remove hardware'. This is only true for Windows XP. With Windows Vista and Windows 7 the power is not shut off at the USB port. Reason for this is that e.g. connected MP3-Player or Smartphones keep on charging the battery.